{"id":639088,"date":"2026-04-29T20:44:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:44:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/639088\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T20:44:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T20:44:10","slug":"jerome-powell-delivers-likely-final-speech-as-fed-chairman-as-rates-hold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/639088\/","title":{"rendered":"Jerome Powell delivers likely final speech as Fed chairman as rates hold"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Analysis\"Powell’s years at the Fedpublished at 21:15 BST<\/p>\n

21:15 BST<\/p>\n

\"\"Michelle Fleury
New York business correspondent<\/p>\n

Jerome Powell\u2019s term as Fed chair is winding down (though he\u2019ll stay on as a governor for a bit), and it\u2019s a good moment to take stock.<\/p>\n

When Covid hit, the Fed moved fast. Rates went to zero, and emergency lending programmes were rolled out to stop credit markets from freezing. It didn\u2019t solve the crisis, but it helped steady the system when things were falling apart.<\/p>\n

As Powell has put it, the backdrop itself has changed: \u201cIt\u2019s been very challenging \u2014 a supply shock world. For 25 years before that, it was mostly demand management. It\u2019s just very different now.\u201d<\/p>\n

The criticism came later. Even as inflation surged, the Fed didn\u2019t start raising rates until March 2022.<\/p>\n

Critics say that delay forced much sharper hikes later. And it\u2019s what led Donald Trump to brand Powell \u201ctoo late,\u201d alongside pressure over the Fed\u2019s independence as he pushed for faster cuts.<\/p>\n

But the outcome now looks different. The recession many expected never arrived. Inflation has come down without a major downturn. It\u2019s the kind of \u201csoft landing\u201d central bankers rarely pull off.<\/p>\n

Powell was asked about his legacy at a recent press conference. He brushed it off, saying: \u201cThat\u2019s for someone else to say. I\u2019ll give you a mulligan on that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In the end, his record may be less about perfect calls \u2014 and more about keeping the system steady under real pressure.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Powell’s years at the Fedpublished at 21:15 BST 21:15 BST Michelle FleuryNew York business correspondent Jerome Powell\u2019s term…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":639089,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[64,63,99,164],"class_list":["post-639088","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-economy","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-economy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639088","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=639088"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/639088\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/639089"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=639088"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=639088"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=639088"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}